Eco-Scams Are as Easy as ‘A123’

While President Obama was busy lambasting Big Oil tax breaks on Thursday, yet another of his environmental-welfare recipients (the very kind he wants to redistribute oil subsidies to) was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Who needs to win the Mega Millions lottery? Start a pie-in-the-sky eco-boondoggle, and a half-billion-dollar jackpot ripe for squandering is all yours!

The Solyndra of the week is A123 Systems, an electric-vehicle battery company based in Massachusetts. The firm also has battery plants in Michigan, where former Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm once heralded A123 as a federal stimulus “success story.” Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the company headquarters and hailed it as a “great example of how Recovery Act funding is helping American companies.” In addition to nearly $300 million in Obama Recovery Act funds, Granholm kicked in another $135 million in tax credits and subsidies to bribe the company to keep jobs in her state.